Tuesday Briefing

Palestinians surveyed the damage at a camp for displaced people on the grounds of Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in central Gaza after an Israeli strike on Monday.Credit…Mohammed Saber/EPA, via Shutterstock

A ‘recurring nightmare’ in Gaza

Dozens of Palestinians were injured or killed by Israeli strikes in central Gaza yesterday morning, one of which hit the grounds of Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, according to health officials and the U.N.

Scores of families had set up camp in the hospital compound’s parking lot, hoping that international laws prohibiting attacks on hospitals would make it a safe place to shelter. The strike left a trail of destruction and horror: flames jumping from tent to tent, shrieks of agony and charred human remains.

“It is like living inside a recurring nightmare,” said Mahmoud Wadi, a 20-year-old whose extended family had been living on the hospital grounds for months. He said it was the seventh hospital strike his family had witnessed. “Every time we sleep, we wake up to this same scenario of tents struck, people screaming.” See video from the site.

Context: Israel has come under repeated criticism for hitting civilian infrastructure, including hospitals, during the yearlong war in Gaza. The Israeli military said in a statement that it had been targeting a Hamas command center near the hospital. The fire that erupted afterward was probably caused by secondary explosions, it said.

Human shields: Israeli troops have regularly forced captured Gazans to carry out life-threatening tasks, according to a Times investigation. While the extent and scale of such operations are unknown, the practice is illegal under both Israeli and international law.